After securing President Reagan's approval in January 1982, the CIA tricked the Soviet Union into acquiring software with built-in flaws.

"In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds," Mr Reed writes.

The project exceeded the CIA's wildest dreams. There were no casualties in the explosion, but it was so dramatic that the first reports are said to have stirred alarm in Washington.

The initial reports led to fears that the Soviets had launched a missile from a place where rockets were not known to be based, or even had detonated "a small nuclear device"

Now, of course, the current Russian Republic is not the Soviet Union, and relations are much better, even at their worst, but this is the sort of "hacking" that someone might legitimately complain about. Phishing Podesta's email password, and then revealing that information, all of which is admitted to be completely accurate, is hardly a big deal, even if it really was the Russians that did it. Given their Siberian experience, they could hardly expect us to complain if they only help the Obama administration in meeting its pledge to be the most transparent in history!

Thursday, December 29, 2016

The Eternal Flame Falls is a small waterfall located in the Shale Creek Preserve, a section of Chestnut Ridge Park in Western New York. A small grotto at the waterfall’s base emits natural gas, which can be lit to produce a small flame. This flame is visible nearly year round, although it can be extinguished and must occasionally be re-lit.

The researchers also noted the presence of numerous other 'micro seeps' in the area of the falls. By comparing the gas emitted by these seeps with gas from wells in the area, they determined that the gasses originate from Rhinestreet Shale approximately 400 meters (1,300 ft) below the surface. Tectonic activity likely opened faults in the shale, allowing the gas to reach the surface.

This makes nauseating reading now that we know how the Lightbringer performed in office for eight long years, and how much bed wetting they are all experiencing now that Trump is on the way.

“We can’t afford to waste an hour, much less a day or a week or a month. And this business of being a lame duck President and saying, you know, ‘Adios. I’m going to the ranch. I’m just not going to do very much during this period.’ We can’t afford it....We’re in possibly, possibly the biggest crisis we’ve been in since December 7, 1941, and maybe since the time of the Civil War. So, we can’t afford to have this interregnum.”— Ex-CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, December 5.“If I had my druthers right now, we would convene a special session of Congress, amend the Constitution and move up the inauguration from Jan. 20 to Thanksgiving Day....Just get me a Supreme Court justice and a Bible, and let’s swear in Barack Obama right now — by choice — with the same haste we did — by necessity — with L.B.J. in the back of Air Force One. “— New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, Nov. 23.
“Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning. Seriously....Just to be on the safe side, the Vice President ought to turn in his resignation first. (We’re desperate, but not crazy.) Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would become President until Jan. 20. Obviously, she’d defer to her party’s incoming chief executive, and Barack Obama could begin governing.”— New York Times columnist Gail Collins in her November 22 column, “Time for Him to Go.”
Host Gwen Ifill: “Maybe what people are beginning to say is that this President-elect should be President now? ...”
New York Times reporter Peter Baker: “That’s right, exactly. People voted for change and [there’s] this strange, odd 77-day waiting period that we impose, in effect, between our election and our inauguration.”— PBS’s Washington Week, December 5.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Nearly every year, the peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes are temporarily dusted with white. Satellites captured such events in 2014, 2015, and most recently in December 2016, pictured here.

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured these natural-color images of the snowy peaks on December 25, 2016. A storm on December 18 brought not only snow, but bouts of thunder and lightning. While snow in Hawaii is not unusual (it can even fall in summer), thundersnow is less common.

The storm was reportedly associated with a Kona low. This low-pressure system brought a change in wind direction, such that winds that typically blow out of the northeast shifted to blow from the southwest. The winds from the leeward or “Kona” side drew moisture from the warm, tropical Pacific that ultimately fell as snow over the high elevations.

We usually don't feel the coastal quakes here unless they are on the larger side, because the alluvial of the central valley absorbs the energy. It's these east side quakes that make our little ranch jump around. That one is on the bigger side of what usually happen over on the other side of the Sierra. It'll make the news tomorrow morning, and it might have been quite the ride out in Hawthorne, Nevada.

I'd wager passengers with a penchant for troublemaking fly another airline after this. A flight is no place for hysterics or attention seeking behavior from self absorbed idiots. Now, if you play stupid games on a Korean airline, you'll win stupid if electrifying prizes.